Thursday, May 14, 2009

Friends sorry for being so late in posting.I am thankful to my visitors who kept on visiting and kept on missing me.Due to prevailing adverse conditions i was keeping a eye on recent (mis)happenings and was a silent spectator of the situation.Anyway cautiously here i am back again with the two comics and few covers of the comics which i recently brought with me.The first is Motu-Patlu comic,Motu-Patlu, a brain child of Kripa Shankar Bhardwaj were quite funny due to their stupidness and hilarious situations.More information about Motu-Patlu is provided hereby Arun in his own words.Here is goes,for which all thanks and credit goes to him.

1.Introduction:-“Whom do you consider the longest running Indian comic character?”. When somebody asked me this question my spontaneous answer was “Motu-Patlu”. They started their journey in Lot-Pot in the early 70s and they are still appearing in it, though quite different from their old days.

2.Debut:-Motu-Patlu debuted in Lot-Pot in its old version and they were the brain child of Kripa Shankar Bhardwaj the celebrated cartoonist from India and one of the first exponents of this developing art in India. Their adventures, or rather misadventures, along-with their associates Dr. Jhatka and Master Ghasita Ram were the main attraction of Lot-Pot and the editors of Lot-Pot had given them full 10 pages whereas Chacha Choudhary, considered to be most popular comic character of India, was given only 3 pages. Those were the peak days of Motu-Patlu and they became the household names of Hindi heartland. Then abruptly the old Lot-Pot stopped and a new version was launched after some time and this time also Motu-Patlu were there but not by Kripa Shankar Bhardwaj but other lesser known artists and these features of Motu-Patlu looks not even the shadow of earlier Motu-Patlu as created by Bhardwaj but still they carried on and is carrying till today. So technically my argument is right that they are longest running cartoon characters of India from the early 70s till 2009 though it does not sound good to the hard-core fans of Bhardwaj.

3.Bhardwaj’s Motu-Patlu outside Lot-Pot:-Bhardwaj after coming out of Lot-Pot took his Motu-Patlu to Diamond Comics & Diwana. Diamond Comics published his features already published in Lot-Pot in comic form and he also created some new comics for them whereas in Diwana it appeared as a feature.

4.Other artists of Motu-Patlu:-After departure of Bhardawaj from Lot-Pot the editors deputed some other artists for creating feature of Motu-Patlu. Most of the post-Bhardwaj features of Motu-Patlu in Lot-Pot were created by Harvind Makkad. Other artists were Manik, T.R. Sippi and Vinod etc. I consider Manik to be the best among non-Bhardwaj Motu-Patlu artists. His Motu-Patlu covers for Lot-Pot are a delight to eyes.

I do not know whether I am correct or not but I am under the impression that one Diamond Comics featuring Motu-Patlu was also created by cartoonist Pran(of Chacha Choudhary fame) i.e. Motu-Patlu in Asiad. I may be wrong.

The reasons for my belief:-

1.In comics created by Pran Diamons Comics used to publish his brief life-sketch on the back.

2.In that particular comic (Motu-Patlu in Asiad) I had seen that sketch on the cover back though I do not remember now whether I had seen name of Pran on the top of front cover of the comic. (Name of Pran is published on the top of front cover (just above the title) of the comics created by him.

3.Cartoonist Pran in those days ( in the early 80s) had created comics of characters which are not created by him. I have two comics of Chacha-Bhatija created by cartoonist Pran.

Unfortunately, I do not have that comic with me now and I had read it in my early childhood. If somebody has definite knowledge about the same I request him/her to share it with us.

5.The difference between Bhardwaj Motu-Patlu and others’ Motu-Patlu:- They are miles apart both from the story point of view as well as in their appearance.

The Motu-Patlu of Bhardwaj were adventuress due looking for always doing something new in life. The comedy borns when they adventures turns in misadventures. They are silly not fool. They are brave as well and ready to take any job come their way. Their stories appeal to children and adults alike whereas others’s Motu-Patlu(except that of Manik to some extent) are fool, coward and good-for-nothing. Their stories appeal only to children and adults do not find it interesting enough. Most the stories of Manik are based on the confrontation between the good deeds of Motu-Patlu and bad ideas of Master Ghasita Ram.

The difference of appearance can be understood only when you see illustrations of both of them. In words it is difficult to explain but I can say that Bhardwaj’s Motu-Patlu are stout and handsome in comparison of others Motu-Patlu where they are shown as loose-bodied.

6.Bhardwaj apart from Motu-Patlu:-Bhardwaj created some other comic characters for publications like Diwana, Raj Comics & Manoj Comics, etc. but never tested so much success as he tested with Motu-Patlu. In 90s he returned to Lot-Pot and created some other characters but apart from Sheikh Chilli rest of the his characters were short-lived and disappeared very soon. It is surprising that why editors of Lot-Pot did not give Motu-Patlu again to Bhardwaj. Subsequently, though he created some features of Motu-Patlu but to the disappointment of his fans he changed the appearance of Motu-Patlu on the lines of others and his new stories also misses the punches for which he is known in the 70s.

7.Publications of Motu-Patlu:-I have come across the following publishers who published Motu-Patlu stories:-

8.Gang of Motu-Patlu:- Apart from Motu-Patlu there are some characters in their stories. Among them Dr. Jhatka & Master Ghasita Ram were as popular as Motu-Patlu themselves and they appeared inmost of their stories. From my memory I am preparing the list of gang of Motu-Patlu:-

1.Motu

2.Patlu

3.Dr. Jhatka

4.Master Ghasita Ram

5.Chela Ram

6.Papita Ram

7.Nayan Sukh

8.Dhela Ram

9.Chhella Ram

10.Akalmand Ullo (Wise(silly) owl). He speaks like humans.

There are two characters more whose name I am not able to remember now.

9. Trivia:-

(i)As Bhardwaji used to write his name in a stylish manner as a child I was not able to read his name and used to read it as “Narayani”. It was only a year back when I got some old Lot-Pots and Diamond Comics that I was able to figure out his real name.

(ii)Papita Ram never appeared in Bhardwaj’s features. He appeared only in others’ features. Similarly, Chela Ram appeared in Bhardwaj’s features exclusively except once when he appeared in a Pitara Comics.

(iii)In Ankur/Paltoo/Pikloo series of Diamond Comics Bhardwaj created some features exclusively showing Master Ghasita Ram. They were based on his misadventures in class. There were some stories in which Chela Ram was shown as detective and whole of those stories were based on Chela Ram and Motu-Patlu appeared only as a token in those stories in some panels on one or two pages. Diamond Comics also published some puzzles featuring Motu-Patlu & Gang.

(iv)Drawing of some of the Motu-Patlu features in Diamond comics seems different to me than the style of drawing of Bhardwaj like some Chela Ram defective stories or comic like Motu-Patlu in Maut ki Ghati. I wonder whether they are created by some other artist.

(vi)Motu-Patlu and Co. appeared in some of the Sheikh Chilli stories and Sheikh Chilli appeared in some of Motu-Patlu stories.

(Story & Illustrations:Kripa Shankar Bhardwaj)

Super Commando Dhruv fame Anupam Sinha started his career with Chitra Bharti comics where he created his first Hero "Private Detective Kapil" which was quite popular then.Here is one such comic of Kapil where he solves mysteries with his sharp mind.

you took words from my mouth.. Sunehri chidiya and khooni talwar indeed reminds us the good old days of childhood..

o ma.. i cannot forget those days when i was fogetting everything for this comics..

if you recall khooni talwar has two parts .. and it is story of frindship between Sherbaj and his associate plus best friend 'dilawar'. story was running in 'pichla janam' where dilawar was sea pirate, sherbaj was a senapati and Roma was princes in love with sherbaj.

About Motu Patlu:

comics world ... I have not seen a devoted person of Comics like you who has so much information to share.. hats of to you my friend..

Frankly.. when i used to read comics i was not paying that much attention to names of writer etc and started noticing these things quite late..

whatever you told about motu patlu is great.. and i would say that though i have read motu patlu from 'deewana' lotpt, ankur.. it was Deewana where motu patlu was just awesome..

Lotpot did gave some good funny moments but Deewana was always great..

in Ankur ( dimond comic) motu patlu has various flavours .. some times funny, sume time adventerous ( like detective or treasure hunting, police work etc)..

aur yaar is post ke liye main kya kahun , aapne to bus meri sun li hai ... motu patlu, chella ram ,ghasita etc are my favourite characters.. do you remmeber , when I came to meet you , i was talking about these comics only...

Kuldeep: Indeed you have a elephant memory my friend.Yeah,"Khooni Talwar" has a concluding part named as "Aakhiri Muqabla".Both comics are classics.Manoj Chitra Katha was going with great guns in those time mainly due to their ace writer Bimal Chatterji,supported by likes of Ansar Akhtar(Col.Karn fame).Bimal Chatterji was a successful thriller and detective novel writer before he was engaged my MCK to write comic stories.The stories by Bimal Chatterji were indeed very gripping and interesting,i still enjoy comics written by him.It was after due to his sad demise that MCK suffered a downfall and were eventually forced to pull shutter down by the Raj comics.Thanks for the kind words.About Motu-Patlu no doubt Deewana stories were the best.I remember those Motu-Patlu stories mentioned by you and will try to post them soon from Deewana.The character of Ghasita Ram is that who inject funny situation and complement Motu-Patlu adventures.

O yaar assi embrass nahin kar rahe hain, assi mean it. For so long I've been running a search in google to find a hint or trace of "Sunehari Chidiya", even in Orkut you can see old topics where I have requested for it.

Thanks for your kind reply. I have been a comic nut for a long time- was a real fan of Motu Patlu for many years through their appearence in Lot Pot. I also like Bankelal a lot. Sherbaaz incidently is the first character whose comics I bought with my own pocket money and read for the first time and hence the request.

Ashish: "Sunheri Chidiya" also have a 2nd part named as "Jadui Chhadi",which unfortunately i am not having at the moment with me.If i have noticed it earlier then might have also brought its 2nd part along with me from home.So what you say,should i scan/post Sunehri Chidiya only or should wait for the 2nd part!

Ashish: Normally i have all parts binded together but this 'Sunehri Chidiya" having two other comics in its binding.The rest part may be in some other binding which i am not having at the moment.I don't think i am having Fauladi Singh aur Swarg K Bhagwan,will check this English issue.

Rafiq Raja: Welcome Rafiq Bhai,all thanks to Arun for sharing such a nice information.By the way i read the article on Rani Comics at your blog,very good information.I am still waiting for your response about managing some hard copies of Phantom/Mandrake Rani comics.

Ashish: Dear Ashsish all the comments are answered promptly,if you mean 'reaction of comments' by posting requested comics then pls also try to understand our position,i have to scan/edit/compress and upload a comic by myself and all this process takes ample time which sometime is quite difficult to squeeze out from daily busy life.Also i am not getting any contributions so that only download link could be posted,provided by the contributors.So pls also understand my position as i can understand your feelings behind this eager comment.Don't worry your comic is under scanning.

Please don't think that I am being ungrateful, I am still very much thankful to all uploads.

Though I can go back to MCK community and do a research there about the request and corresponding comic upload ratio for all. I guess if one needs to prove a point then one is not doing things properly.

I do understand the efforts it takes to do this work having tried to edit one myself.

However there is always two sides of a coin. It may take very less effort, but it also take some to keep checking blogs, putting comments and then hoping against hope that people are listening to you. It would take so much less if one is phantom visitor visiting only in weekend and just downloading all the stuff, anyway in some time the comics will be uploaded.

It is the satisfaction which one gets from continuous interaction I guess which is the the basis of any relationship.

I also guess any relationship has an account where one continuously needs to credit if one wants to debit.

hi,i was browsing for the lucky luke and iznogoud comics when i stumbled on your site.i got so curious about motu patlu.are they in english?would there be any chance that this english titles will be available for download?i'm from the southeast asia.preserving vintage comics for the next generation is one hard work.hope i'll be hearing soon from you.thanks - ali

Dear CW, A Little correction about Kapil being the first character of Anupam Sinha.

Before that he has already created Space Star and Manas Putra. Whereas Manas Putra came only in the Chocolate magezine and never had its own comic, Space Star came into issue no. 13, whereas Kapil started from issue no. 36.

Ashish: Its ok pal as i can understand the frustration behind the wait which one faces while waiting for his eagerly waited requested comic.Almost 90% of down loaders are ghost visitors only which can easily be ascertained by download/comment ratio.For me few peoples interacting,putting up their thoughts and sharing their comic experiences is enough to generate necessary enthusiasm for posting and you are among one of such interacting readers.It taking nothing to be a phantom visitor except self satisfaction in ones mind to say at least few words of thanks.So i request all readers to understand our(scanners/uploaders) position also and bear with us some if some delay happens in posting.

this is about manas putra character created by Anupam..sir jee this is not true that he "never had its own comic".. I mentioned before there was a comics " mahamaya ki talwar" starring manas putra .. a full comic..

Congrats on completing 3 years of your blog. I always wanted to leave comment but didn't had many ideas to contribute.

But when you mentioned Motu Patlu aur Asiad something in my mind clicked.I remember it vividly as the first comic i first took out on rent and read from cover to cover. I can still remember myself laughing over Motu Patlu's attempt to master various games. I know you do not like comments where people just ask for a comic so won't ask for it- but PLEASE upload MotuPatlu Aur Asiad.Keep up the good work